The present invention relates to a device for compensating the tilt of the carriage body of a rail vehicle when travelling around bends at high speeds, and for reducing the centrifugal forces arising therefrom in order to keep the stresses for the passengers within such limits as provide comfortable travel.
The general strivings to increase the travel speed in rail traffic go hand in hand with the problem of being able to retain high speeds, unrestricted, even in the bends.
Current track apparatus has certain superelevations in order to be able to compensate the effect of centrifugal force during travel on bends. These superelevations are only able, however, to compensate the centrifugal forces as a function of the radius of curvature up to a certain speed.
Furthermore, speeds simultaneously increase the forces acting laterally relative to the direction of travel, which then have an unpleasant effect on the passengers during travel on bends.
A rail vehicle travelling thus with excess centrifugal force on a bend with a superelevated track tends to tilt its carriage body towards the outside of the bend.
This situation is undesirable, however, as angular positions oriented in the wrong direction are imposed on the system.
The result is a substantial loss of comfort for the passengers and inadmissible exceeding of the specified clear space profile in a carriage body cross-section which is not specially adapted.
In this sense it is necessary so to compensate such a tilt of the carriage body towards the outside of the bend that, at the same time, the excessive centrifugal force acting on the passengers is reduced.
This means imposing on the carriage body of a rail vehicle a tilt oriented towards the inside of the bend in order to effect increased speeds on bends.
In the prior art, two modes of operation have been used to this end: either an active tilt system, e.g. according to DE-OS 24 34 143, wherein the carriage body of a rail vehicle is tilted towards the inside of the bend at a proportional angle and about a horizontal longitudinal axis by means of control and adjustment elements, or a passive tilt system, e.g. according to DE-OS 25 12 008, wherein the carriage body of a rail vehicle is mounted so as to oscillate like a pendulum and the longitudinal axis of the tilting movement oriented towards the inside of the bend in each case lies above the center of gravity of the vehicle.
Both above-mentioned modes of operation have in common the disadvantage, however, that a special cross-section of the carriage body is produced, which is different for each system, depending on the height of their respective center of rotation.
Whereas in an active system, although all possible compensation of the tilt angle can be achieved, it is at the cost of very high investment in control and mechanics.
In a passive system, on the other hand, the expense involved is substantially less, but at the same time the corresponding compensation of the angle of tilt is more modest.